V Shape
The days get shorter, the climate becomes rigid, many of us lose the desire to go outdoor sports.
It's winter, baby… but it sure won't stop us!
It is winter, and the strategies are transformed. We take the opportunity to "lock ourselves" in the gym to indigestion of cast iron even more than normal, if possible.
The workouts become more intense, putting mass or strength become the imperatives. Some of us move our residence to the squat rack. Workouts change, and maybe nutrition becomes more abundant just to follow the pace of muscle growth we are looking for.
The project then foresees cutting in the spring, resuming aerobic training and throwing down too much weight to show up on time, the summer, with a well-defined body to show: finally with those muscles, built during the cold months by dint of squats, deadlifts and bench presses, to turn some heads.
It is then the time to invest in a training program that not only makes us increase strength and volume - which of the two to give priority to is our personal goals - but which also insists on those parts of the body that contribute so much to the so-called "Beach body".
We are talking about well built shoulders, a strong and wide back, a tight abdomen.
Just think of Schwarzenegger, Reeves or Gironda: those physicists of the first bodybuilders, who had made v-taper body - as the Americans call it - one of their priorities.
And with a targeted program and a good diet it is possible to aspire to the slim and sexy body we are looking for - men and women, it applies to both!
The goal therefore is work to widen the shoulders, give mass to the lateral back muscles e narrow the circumference of the abdominal section as much as possible.
Back
As for the shoulders, there are a couple of tricks to apply.
Training frequency
First of all the frequency of training.
It is certainly no secret that in order to make a part of the body stand out we have to train it more frequently.
Training your shoulders two or three times a week, rotating the core exercises and accompanying them to secondary exercises that attack the delts from multiple points (especially the difficult posterior ones), you can ... and you must.
The shoulders in fact they grow when subjected to a large volume of training: are recommended long series with moderate weights, therefore, with which to integrate a couple of workouts per week. For strength, a third weekly workout will be held, perhaps focused on the slow forward with the barbell.
Slow relaxation
The second trick is to incorporate some series of slow relaxation.
La slow relaxation is a weightlifting exercise that was eliminated from the Olympic discipline in the early seventies.
You start by holding the bar - off the ground or off the rack - at thigh height, with a fairly wide grip. It is done a momentum up to the front position and, finally, a slow one is performed with only the strength of the arms, that is, without pushing from the part of the legs or body.
Now the trick is this: let's do short streaks, of 3 or 4 repetitions, then at the last repetition hold the barbell above the head, with locked elbows, and walk for a few tens of meters.
Yes: walk!
The benefits of this exercise are numerous: the shoulders are urged to grow due to the occlusion effect, while the muscles, being in a constant state of oscillation, are forced to work more fibers to stabilize themselves and this consequently causes more fibers can be activated when working the shoulders.
Back
To the shoulder workouts we associate a healthy (over) dose of rowing with dumbbell in long series, to counteract the pushing movements with those of pulling and go to plump the back (but don't even think about it, to eliminate the deadlifts from the workouts! ).
This is just a supplement, however: we will continue to train the back with the usual medley pull-up, barbell row - and variations - and lat machines.
Abdomen
Finally, we will add to our abdominal workouts the so-called abdominal void, the undisputed (and somewhat forgotten) queen of flat stomach techniques.
These are exercises used by bodybuilders of the classical school, who had very different bellies from those now seen in competitions.
The simplest of the abdominal vacuum exercises involves fully exhale the air in your lungs and make an active and intense effort to "pull" the navel as much as possible towards the spine, then maintaining this tension for several seconds. The exercise can be done lying down or standing.
Let's start by doing series of 3 abdominal voids lasting thirty seconds interspersed with a one-minute pause, three times a week. We gradually bring the reps to one minute duration under tension.
summing up
Broad and muscular shoulders, a solid back to act as a counterpoint, and a tight belly: integrating our training week with mini-workouts aimed at increasing the frequency of work on the shoulders, back and abdomen, we will find the perfect elements for our beach body. Let's invest in this winter and… let's make it profitable!
